


The Fourth Wall

by impossibleSituation



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Battle, Exploring, Lusii?, Mysterious Island, Parallel Universes, Punchcard alchemy, Ruins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3577458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossibleSituation/pseuds/impossibleSituation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is generally about a kid who lives alone on an island, with mysterious technology and a canine protector with mysterious teleporting properties. Obviously, it mirrors what a space player's home would be like, but the likeness to SBURB pretty much ends there. There might be occasional referenced to Homestuck, but non-fans can probably follow it well enough. About the story, the main character finally decides to explore the jungle outside his massive home on the island, and he finds a mysterious temple which contains the fourth wall. The fourth wall is a portal into other dimensions, namely other stories I write. This will probably be the master story, with different chapters featuring adventures into other universes. I may or may not include other AU's, and I may also ask some people to use their stories. I would also be happy to take requests for new story ideas, once I get that far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

            Many kids are content with going to school, playing sports, and generally living a normal life. The most worrying things in their life are how they will get a passing grade on the next test, and who has a crush on who. I, however, am far from normal. I haven’t seen another living human for as long as I can remember, and a magic dog that only shows up occasionally is a poor substitute. I have seen things that would send any normal kid running for their mommy.

            As you will probably be able to tell by the end of my story, I am in a bad position, but maybe I should back up a few days, to when all of this started. This is the story of how I (almost) died.

* * *

 

            _Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!_ I groaned and rolled out of bed, attempting to smash the alarm clock but missing entirely. _Thud._ The lamp that I had specially designed to shine constellations instead of steady light went crashing to the floor. I sighed and watched several other of my projects collapse under the onslaught of the starry projector, pinpoints of light bouncing around the walls. However, for just the almost inevitably daily occasion that _something_ fell from my lofty bed, I kept an extendable grabber close at hand. I carefully maneuvered the claw hand through the chaos of my room and snagged the lamp before it could cause too much damage.

            “ _I really need to move that lamp,”_ I thought, setting it down on my table. I added that to my list of things to do, but my agenda was already full of completing inventions, finishing writing books, and getting around to exploring the jungle outside my house. With a growl from my stomach, I realized that I had so much on my plate last night that I had forgotten to eat.

I slipped my notebook of schematics and ideas, with my name, Soul, into my pocket and slid down the ladder to the floor of my room. Picking my way around machines, both completed and still in progress, I stepped onto one of the many white telepads that provided instant access to the maze of rooms in my house. The raised circular pad had a strange symbol on it, like an atom without a nucleus, and I had spent hours staring at it in various places. For some reason, it kept popping up, and I had no explanation for it. Shaking my head, I stepped on the platform and a green haze surrounded me as I was whisked away to the kitchen. For a minute, I hung in limbo, and then the black faded to green, and soon the kitchen came into focus.

The kitchen was unlike any other in the normal world. Metallic cubes, about a metre tall and pure white, like the telepads, were lined up against one wall. Each one had the atom symbol in one corner and another, larger symbol identifying its purpose. Several were obvious, like the cooker having a flame and the freezer having a snowflake, but others were more cryptic, such as a series of interlocking triangles and squares on the holographic archive of recipes and foods. It took me a while to figure out exactly what all the gadgets did, but after living alone in the house for as long as I could remember, using them had become natural. Several of the cubes lay half-dismantled in an attempt to learn how they worked. Some of them I had entirely destroyed for parts, before I discovered the hidden stockpile of spare materials in the basement.

I scrolled through the dial on the linked cupboards, denoted by their odd pattern of squares, and selected some cereal. Immediately, a cardboard box appeared in a green flash. I also selected a jug of milk from the freezer, which flashed into existence just like the cereal. A long time ago, I had tried to figure out where the machines kept their storage, but even after prying some apart, I found no solution. The most likely answer that I could come up with was that they worked similarly to the telepads, and the food was all stored somewhere else. I just hoped that the machines didn’t zap the food out of someone else’s refrigerator.

After eating my cereal and staring out the huge floor-to-ceiling windows at the seemingly impenetrable forest of trees far below and the volcano beyond for a while, I snapped back into reality and started towards the telepad that led to my room. Halfway to the telepad, I noticed a white shape watching me from the corner of my eye. I tried to turn my head slowly and get a better look, but before I could, it vanished in the same unearthly green teleportation that food and other objects occasionally did. Shrugging, I turned back to the telepad and zapped myself into my room.

The white shape that I had seen was a constant companion and guardian around the house. Most of the time, it vanished before I got a good look at it, but lately it seemed to be warming up to me. Long ago, I had a hazy memory of pointed ears watching over me, and now that I thought about it, whenever I had gotten myself into a dangerous situation, it had been watching to be sure that I made it out. Soon, I saw the being waiting for me at the top of a pile of inventions and blueprints, and for the first time in recent memory, I saw what it actually looked like.

Sharp ears stuck straight up out of a furry head. I was surprised to see that it was a dog, and immediately my thoughts drifted to, _man’s best friend,_ despite never hearing it before. A small tuft of fur was swirled up, but other than that, its coat was smooth. The dog looked similar to a German Shepherd, but it was pure white, its eyes miniature black holes. Looking into them, time suddenly ground to a halt. Scenes of brilliant stars and swirling galaxies flashed before me, but before I could react, the creature vanished in a crackle of green light and yellow electricity.

I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear the momentary trance of memories that weren’t mine and suddenly only one word was left burning in my mind. “Alexander…” I muttered to myself, trying to remember the names of any famous people named Alexander. _Alexander Graham Bell, famous for research into speech, creator of the telephone. Alexander Fleming, creator of penicillin. Alexander the great, creator of an empire._

After thinking about it for a minute, I suddenly remembered that the name “Alexander” meant guardian. “Guardian,” I said out loud. Somehow, it seemed like a fitting name for the invisible protector. I ran my hand through my jet black hair and looked around, as though there would be some explanation as to what the animal actually was, and why it was here, but the boxes and half-built machines gave no answer to my unasked question.

* * *

For the next half hour, I struggled to work on a new invention that would make traveling around easier, but so far I had nothing to show for it. Finally accepting that I was not going to get anything done and was only putting off adventuring into the trees, I put down my screwdriver and got up. Several scraps of metal and wires fell to the floor, adding to the mess that was gathered around me.

I tried to clear a path back to the telepad, but boxes and machines had somehow migrated in front of it, blocking my way. Fortunately, as everything seemed to have a life of its own in my house, I knew a few other ways around. Despite being extremely well-made and futuristic, the telepads occasionally did break down, and I would have to take the stairs until they were fixed. Today however, the stairs were not an option.

Something, by which I mean the only other living thing in the house, Alexander, had left a pile of strange bones and artifacts from the areas of the island that I had never explored on the main stairwell, and it seemed that the only open doors led to passageways outside. In the fourteen years that I had lived here, I had never left the safety of the space around my house. Every time I wandered more than ten metres away from the house, I noticed strange shapes with claws and spines watching me from behind ominous bushes and trees. However, as it seemed that I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere except into the unknown darkness, I decided that today would be the day that I finally ventured out.

I temporarily retreated back into my room and dug out the gear that I had slowly added to over the years in preparation for this day. This gear consisted of everything that I could possibly need on my mission. A pocket sized cube with a house cut into four pieces depicted on it was one of the main tools that I put into my colorless backpack. It could place a fully pitched tent complete with cooking machines, and then pack it up again when I was finished. I also added a fire starter to the backpack, along with several cans of food and a can opener. Rope, a flashlight, a skeleton key that I had crafted, a compass, and a water bottle with an unending supply all went into the pack as well. Finally, I added my quiver to the pack and picked up my bow. As an afterthought, I also picked up the belt sheath for my twin sickles. Swinging my pack over my shoulder, I took one last look around the stockpile, pulled on my black cloak, and headed out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just assume I am sorry for any short chapters because I am trying to get my ideas down quickly and I am not that good at filler text.

After a few minutes of wandering through long rooms and hallways that slowly led downwards, I found myself in the main entrance room. It was a spacious room that I had never used much, and comfortable-looking furniture was still hanging around, covered in dust. In fact, everything seemed to be covered in dust here. Walking towards the huge, old-fashioned wooden door, swirls of dirt and fine powder rose up behind me. A barely visible trail of paw-shaped footprints traced a winding path through the foyer, which split up into several different paths. One led to the entrance door, another to the den, and the last leading up the main stairwell.

There was no doggie door, but considering that Alex could teleport, I guessed that wasn’t much of a problem. Dimly, I remembered a white figure caring for me when I was small, and I wondered just how long that dog, if it could be called that, had lived in the house. Once I was big enough to take care of myself, he had vanished and only recently I had seen him again. _“Where does he go when he isn’t watching me?”_ I wondered. As I crossed the room, footsteps muffled by the dust, I wondered if he had explored the island long before me.

Finally, I reached the door that, up close, looked like the door of a fortress rather than a house, and tugged at the handle. It was locked, but I pulled out my skeleton key and turned it in the lock. The heavy, old wood swung open slowly on its hinges, but, surprisingly, it made no noise. I carefully looked around, and when nothing immediately threatening appeared, I took a few steps out into the open. The clear grass ended in about ten metres, and then a wall of impenetrable green rose out of the ground.

I looked up at the sky and judged by the position of the sun that I had about eight hours until sunset. Rays of light were beginning to dispel the night’s chill, but because it was summer, I knew that the heat would soon be uncomfortable. I glanced down at my black shirt, dark blue jeans, and mottled black and grey cloak, realizing that I probably should have made some clothes that _weren’t_ the hottest colour to wear. _“Well, too late now…”_ I thought to myself, and started to make my way into the darkness of the forest.

* * *

Inside the shade of the forest, it was surprisingly cool. The trees did not seem as hostile as they had the last time I tried to go in. Glancing around, wary of anything watching me, I went deeper into the woods and kept on the lookout for movement. Several times, a pair of red eyes met my black ones, but then they vanished as suddenly as a candle being snuffed out. Every time they appeared, I froze, praying that my mottled cloak would help me blend into the forest, but I couldn’t say for sure if it worked. I pulled my bow out after the third time I saw them, and they did not show themselves again.

After about half an hour of wandering through the forest, heading due east, I stumbled upon a faint trail that led forwards. A few minutes later, it opened out into a clearing, with other paths that went out in all four cardinal directions. I decided to rest there for a while, and I pulled out my compass to check that I had not strayed too far from my course. One needle pointed directly home, and the other, north.

I pressed the button on the tent-packer and looked around at the forest on all sides. The tops of the trees swayed gently in the wind, and the sunlight streaming in from the sky lit up the clearing. Occasionally, something moved in the shadows, but nothing came out of the foliage to confront me. Taking one last sweep to make sure I wasn’t in imminent danger, I went into the tent.

The inside of the tent was much bigger than the outside made it seem. I wondered if it was the same technology that allowed the entire tent to be stored in a pocket-sized box, and what it would look like if someone poked a hole through the skin of the tent. Shaking my head to clear the thoughts away, I set down my pack and opened it. I took a drink from the water bottle and rested for a minute on the hard mattress that came with the tent.

Suddenly, I heard a scratching sound outside the tent. Drawing my sickles, I drew my hood up and slowly pushed the tent flap open. I carefully eased out of the tent and looked around the corner of it. A small, black creature was digging in the dirt a couple metres away, its head buried in the ground. It looked vaguely humanoid, but then whipped around caught sight of me and I realized that this creature wasn’t like anything I had seen before, and that it looked angry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a decent chapter length...

The creature was only about waist-height, and a row of sharp teeth stuck out of its wide mouth. Small, white eyes watched me and its three claw-like fingers twitched. We stared at each other, frozen, until the goblin let out a garbled yell and lunged towards me. I stumbled back clumsily, barely keeping hold of the sickles. The imp wasn’t particularly fast or agile, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. I had never been in a real fight before, and while I had spent ages training against a dummy, having a moving target that struck back was a much bigger challenge.

Scrambling to my feet, I brought my weapons up into a ready position. The empty eyes showed absolutely no emotion or intelligence, but the snarling mouth kept me from attacking too soon. It jumped towards me again, but this time I expected it. Bringing one blade up to block it, I used the other to slash at it. I underestimated its size, however, and it barely grazed the creature’s skin. I tried to retreat to a safer distance, but it chased me and went for my legs. Kicking out with one leg, I connected solidly with the imp’s face and it fell backward. Seizing the opportunity, I stabbed downwards with both sickles.

The imp looked surprised as it began to dissolve into black powder, and then it vanished altogether. I had never killed anything before, but something told me that normal creatures didn’t just disappear, leaving only a few strange objects behind. As if it were something from a video game, the imp had left a small pile of loot behind, but it was the least impressive loot I had ever seen. The objects on the ground looked like hexagonal fruit gushers, and I had absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do. They glowed faintly and hovered an inch above the ground, so I guessed they were special somehow despite looking like a snack. Reaching towards the nearer of the two, the blue one, I touched it. As soon as it connected with my fingers, it disappeared. The other one, purple this time, did exactly the same thing.

Wondering how this was useful at all, I noticed another object on the ground that I hadn’t seen before. This one looked much more normal, similar to a touch screen device. It had a switch on top that, once pressed, made the screen glow and come to life. The screen had several buttons along the top, but they were all grey with the exception of the first. This one had a picture of a blue shape just like the one I had seen before on it, and under the icon, there was a label marking it as the Grist Tab. _“Grist?”_ I thought, confused. I had studied elements and compounds, but I had never heard of any grist. However, both of the hexagonal shapes I had picked up were on the screen, along with a counter and a name next to them. The blue one was called build grist, and the purple one was shale. According to the device, I had collected a grand total of two pieces, one of each. Since I had no idea what grist even did, much less how much one piece was worth, this was absolutely useless information.

There was a total of thirty six spaces on the page, but all except the first two had grey question marks on them. I guessed that meant that there were thirty six types of grist, and I had only discovered the first two. Did that mean that later I would meet other kinds of enemies? The first one looked pretty basic, and it didn’t have any special attacks or attributes. That was usually how the enemies appeared, with the later ones having more skills and more loot. Of course, that didn’t matter if the loot was absolutely useless. Maybe I would come across some kind of tool that allowed me to use grist…

Feeling more and more like I was part of a vast video game, I uneasily searched the perimeter of the clearing. Nothing else seemed amiss as far as I could see, but I still felt like I was being watched by someone, or some _thing_. I went back into the tent and tried my best to distract myself with normal tasks, but it wasn’t easy. The creature had bled red blood, but it didn’t leave a single drop on the ground or on my blade once it died. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if it had died. For all I knew, it could have just been sent back to the evil cavern it came from, or have been reincarnated somewhere else. I hoped it wouldn’t come back and repeatedly attack me, because if I was killed by someone, I would definitely hold a grudge against them.

Another strange thing about the creature was how blank it had seemed. Sure, it had attacked me, but I expected there to at least be some rage or anger in its expression. Other than the sharp teeth that it bared at me, it could have been picking daisies for all I saw in its face. When it touched me, it also seemed to have no texture at all. Its skin was neither smooth nor rough, neither warm nor cold. It had no facial features other than the teeth and the eyes, and its black body seemed somewhere between human and animal. It was almost like it hadn’t been given anything other than aggression.

I suddenly got the feeling that something else was about to happen. Quickly, I stood up and got my things together again, wanting to be prepared for anything. Exiting the tent, I packed it up in its cube and looked up at the sky. The sun was still relatively low over the horizon, and I judged that there was still about six or seven hours to go before it set. A few fluffy clouds were flying high in the sky and a nice breeze was blowing, but it was starting to get hot already. I moved into the shade of the trees and decided I should keep moving. Looking down at my compass and noting the way back, I looked over at the path I had entered through and saw that it was now overgrown with plants. In the short time I had rested and fought the imp, trees and vines had already blocked it. Well, it looked like whatever mess I had gotten myself into, there was no turning back. Feeling like I was quickly beginning the adventure of my life, I turned my back on the blocked passageway and began my way on the one that led to the volcano on my island.


	4. Chapter 4

An hour later, the sun had truly risen and the forest became one step closer to a sauna. No more strange events occurred, and it seemed all sensible creatures of the forest had retired to a cave to keep cool. That was a relief- if one attacked, I wasn’t sure I could take it. The imp before had been enough, and it had barely even had claws for Pete’s sake! The jungle monsters were much bigger and scarier than the imp had been. Most of them had some form of sharp implement that was probably all too eager to meet the inside of my body, and once I could’ve sworn I saw a dragon. That might’ve been the product of an over reactive imagination and sleep deprivation, but even if it was, the flying bulls and the gigantic spiders were enough to keep me away. Until now, of course.

Preoccupied by my thoughts, I didn’t notice the sudden drop until it was almost too late. The path had been relatively clear up to this point, without even a single tree barring it. That was strange in itself-Who came here often enough to keep it trimmed?-but the weirdest part was still to come. The forest was suddenly split by a chasm, and at some point in time, a rope bridge had been established to allow crossing. However, it was in a fitting state of disrepair considering that it was probably fifty years old at least, maybe more. Actually, now that I thought about it, the island hadn’t been stumbled upon by an outsider for as long as I’d been alive. From the very pinnacle of the tower, I could see there wasn’t a single footprint along the entire shoreline. No boats or planes had ever passed by, and other than my tower, I hadn’t seen any man-made structures. Dense trees still covered much of the land, however, so anything could be hidden under them.

The chasm before me was obviously deep, but it was dark enough down there that I couldn’t see the bottom. I picked up a rock and tossed it down into the shadows, but after thirty seconds, I gave up waiting for the sound of it landing. Well, there goes that idea. I wasn’t really sure what I would have done with the information of how deep it was, but it seemed to be something I should take note of. Nevertheless, the bridge was my only option.

Gingerly, I put a foot on the first plank and slowly eased my weight onto it. I breathed a sigh of relief as it did not immediately collapse, and began the task of crossing the old bridge. Moving only one step at a time, it took longer than I expected, and once I got a bit farther out, the old ropes started to sway violently with every movement. I half wondered if a tribe of ancient warriors were about to come out of hiding and start shooting blow darts at me, or if the ropes would suddenly snap, leaving me to climb up hand over hand like Indiana Jones. With every step, the planks threatened to snap, and more than once, they did. For a few seconds, I’d scrabbled for a handhold, but I made it back up to relative safety pretty quickly.

At last, I neared the far end of the bridge. All things considered, it had actually been less exciting than I imagined crossing a rickety old rope bridge over a giant chasm in the dense jungle would’ve been. This was practically a cakewalk; I didn’t know why the movies made it seem so danger-

_Crrrrrrrrack._

Uh-oh.

I was halfway between two planks when both of them snapped and split in half, and I suddenly found myself hanging by my fingers and watching several pieces of wood fall into an endless abyss. The only thing that had saved me was my instinct that had grabbed onto the side ropes the instant I heard the cracking begin. Still, hanging by your hands without a foothold is harder than it looks. I could barely even twist without causing the bridge to sway, and every movement threatened to dislodge my hands. I tore my eyes away from the pit beneath me and tried to think. _How do they get out of this in movies?_ I asked myself. Of course, in movies, the most danger the actor actually faced was another retake. This wasn’t _quite_ the same as that. In fact, if I tried some movie star flips to get back up, I’d probably cause the entire bridge to collapse. Pulling myself up as hard as I could, I managed to get my head above the level of planks before having to lower myself again. I tried another time, and succeeded in getting the upper half of my body onto a stable plank. The bridge was still swinging violently, but after a few more desperate grasps at the ropes, my legs were also safe. I crouched and waited for the shaking to stop before standing up nervously.

A few quick jumps were enough to transport me to solid ground once again, and I sat down until I could trust my legs again. Well, what was an adventure without a few brushes with death anyway?


End file.
